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What will the iPad Mini 5 bring?
- Thread starter kds1
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iPad Mini update will skip a year, not happening until 2017. It'll come with 3D touch, A9 Chip (& with Apple Pencil support, maybe). And also it'll come with slightly smaller battery, obviously.
My doubts are based on the sporadic nature of iPad Mini updates. The first generation Mini was a generation behind cutting edge at release; then the Mini 2 caught up with the Air 1; then Mini 3 fell behind a generation and now the Mini 4 (and the Air 2) have been left to languish a generation behind. This wobbly trajectory makes me feel uneasy about Apple's future focus on this product line.
Or maybe it's because they were much busier with other projects like the iPad Pro and the new AppleTV, and iOS 9 and the 6s. Oh. And the Apple Watch.
Well, it's not exactly that Apple is strapped for resources if they were interested in pursuing a project?
It looks like Apple will update iPad once every two years. It started with iPad Mini last year. Apple left it out. This year they left iPad Air out. And next year they'll update iPad Air and leave the mini out of update. With tablet sales declining this looks like Apple's strategy.
I hope you are right. As a current user of the Mini 2 and a future customer for a Mini 5/6; I certainly wish that Apple considers the Mini as part of its mainstream portfolio. My nervousness is driven out of Apple's track record with products which start to fall out of its front-line orbit - the iPod's come to mind.
The mini and iPod touch variants always lag internals. I would not expect to see a refresh before the iPad air 3 ( which will probably have 3d touch and pencil support ).
Yeah, but that's because the need for the iPod was obviated by the iPhone. With everyone having a smartphone, with an iPod built into it, no one needs a stand alone iPod anymore.
Well that's why they made the 4 thinner, so that it can get thicker again and only be as thick as the iPad Mini 2.
Good point. On the upper end;9.7" iPads now have the Pro over the horizon and one the smaller end, the iPhone Plus series is getting close to the Mini. Don't you worry that things are getting crowded for these iPad's ala the iPod vs. iPhone?
No. The 6+ replacing the iPad Mini is ludicrous. A lot of people want to delude themselves into thinking that, then find out, uhhhhh, no, it's not even close. The Pro as well is too big to replace the full sized iPad. It's really for more specialty uses, unless one is going to get the keyboard and forget about getting any type of Mac. Then there are the people like me for whom the Mini is the perfect size, and what I want.
Interesting. I hadn't really looked at it this way. I think you might be on to something.
I think that's right and part of why there was no iPad 3 this fall. iPads are still an important signature product but the demand just isn't there to support an annual upgrade cycle.
No, and if that were true I don't think we would have seen the Mini 4. If Apple believed that the 6 Plus/6S Plus were taking too much out of Mini sales, they would have figured that out during the past year and shelved the Mini 4.